All Forum Posts by: Roman Pak

@James Ihssen That's great news, Congrats! I'm a rehabber in the Arlington Heights area, let me know if you get anything under contract around me. Keep it up!

@Prince Singh What you're talking about is more of a live-in flip. When people live in a house they are flipping themselves. Most experienced flippers/rehabbers use a contractor to do the work. A contractor and their crew can finish a house in a few weeks versus a year. It costs more, but you save money not having to pay the mortgage for a year. 

UPDATE:

Work is in full swing. Walls have been opened, flooring has been ripped out and is being replaced. Electricians are almost done and plumbers are working away as well. 

Here's a few unexpected things that came up. 

First, the electricians found that the wiring throughout the house needed to be redone, it was the braided style from 1949 when the house was built. That needed to go (extra $550)

Since we're adding a full bathroom upstairs we had to demolish two back to back closets, and create the new bath. The plumbers discovered that the piping throughout the house was insufficient for 3 baths, so all of it needs to be redone. (extra $2200). 

The floors between the kitchen, living room and mud room were about 3 inches thick due to multiple layers of 1/4" plywood and vinyl flooring. That needed to get ripped out and leveled (extra $400)

Wow. Lots of great points made here. I really appreciate all the feedback, guys! I suppose there may be an opportunity to work together on some projects rather than competing for the same piece of the pie.

@Mike F. of course not. I am aware of at least two other flippers in my target area, but it's disconcerting that my contractor and such a key member of my investing team is going to be yet another competitor. It just puts me in an unfortunate situation. 

@Jesse T. I purchased the current flip off the mls and provided all the funds to do the rehab. My friend, his dad and their construction company are doing all the rehab work top to bottom. Maybe I need to concentrate on generating leads to purchase houses directly.

So maybe I'm overreacting, but I need to know what my fellow BP members have to say. Here's the story.  I'm working on my first flip, I chose to use my friend and contractor of 18 years, to do the rehab. Today as we're talking, he mentions that he's found a partner and will begin flipping properties with that partner in the near future, here's what has me concerned, his partner is the owner of a bank nearby and has much more capital and connections than I do, not to mention the ability to get financing in any amount. My friend/contractor said he got a list of 27 properties from this guy that he wants looked at and he's willing to buy multiple at a time. 

My first reaction was, no big deal, a guy with that much cash will be playing with much larger and more expensive properties... Or so I thought. As our conversation continued I found out that this investor wants to essentially mine the same ground as me and he's looking at the exact same types of properties that i would be looking for. 100-200k. 

I want to grow my flipping business, but I'm pretty sure I won't be able to compete with someone like that, secondly, my contractor is essentially becoming my competition and will most likely not have the time to rehab my properties if he's making 50% with his other partner. Needless to say I'm majorly bummed and don't really know how to handle this situation. 

I simply use a online calculator like the one on Zillow http://www.zillow.com/mortgage-calculator/. It gives you a good idea of the payment, including property taxes and HOA dues if applicable.

@Brendan M. Welcome to BP, a HUGE thank you for your service, and best of luck in your RE ventures. 

First week and a boat load of problems. As I mentioned in my previous update. We closed on the house in December. The 19th to be exact. Now, just over a month later, no work has been done on the house yet. These past couple of weeks have been difficult, my contractor fell from a ladder (not at my job) the day after my last post and spent two days in the hospital. We had to get a different electrician to come quote the job, because the original one was MIA, no idea what happened, and yesterday I found out that the plumber for the job was in a car accident, so now we need someone else to fill out the permit paperwork. Until that's done, we're sitting on our hands. Feeling real frustrated at this point. 1 month in and no work is done.